still to come on "velshi," 2024, not just donald trump vs. joe biden, donald trump perspective law. the presumptive gop nominee continues to publicly attack judges overseeing his trials and number of the family. not only is he putting those people in danger, he is smearing the entire justice system. plus, a look at the big money in the 2024 race. self-interested billionaires previously supported other candidates now backing trump because his policies are better for their bottom lines. another hour of "velshi" begins right now. good morning, it's sunday, march 31st, happy easter. at this time last year trump

was preparing for two major events, the official kickoff of his 2024 campaign and the first of his for eventual criminal indictments. he was not handling it well. on march 24th of last year, he posted on truth social his then impending indictment would lead to quote, potential death and destruction. the following day he held the first rally of his third presidential campaign in waco, texas, a town with a violent history and he used that event as an opportunity to launch more attacks against those working on his criminal prosecutions, quote, the thugs and criminals who are corrupting our justice system will be defeated, discredited, and totally disgraced. but one week later manhattan district attorney alvin bragg indicted trump on 34 felony ed counts and collection to an alleged cover-up of a payoff scheme to prevent a prevention -- just days before the 2016 election. it was the first time that a former american president had ever been criminally charged in

the history of this country, now, as the justice system closes in on him, trump's rhetoric has grown increasingly disturbing, erratic, dangerous. he is continuing his assault on the justice system on a near daily basis. he is publicly attacking the prosecutors and judges involved in as many legal cases and as a result, the received threats or have been the victim of harassment. trump has previously been referred to brad as an animal and he used a nickname that sounds like a racial epithet to refer to the attorney general james and the past year both have received threats. last christmas, the justice hr department special prosecutor jack smith that's when someone also reports an emergency to trigger a massive and potentially dangerous police response. last fall, the fulton county district attorney fani willis said she received at least 150

personal threats. a few weeks later authorities arrested a man for threatening to harm her, even the trump appointee eileen cannon received a voicemail from a woman in texas who threatened to kill her in front of her children. meanwhile the other judges were also involved is trump related cases have all been targets of flooding -- swatting incidents as well. that brings us to judge merchan. last week he issued a gag order preventing the ex-president from attacking prosecutors, witnesses and court staff, nearly everyone who's peripherally involved in the case but not included on that list, is merchan himself. soon after the gag order took effect, the gop's presumptive nominee began accusing merchants daughter, a private citizen, of being a chemical, rabid trump heater.

it's clear what trump is doing. he's desperately trying to depict judge merchan as biased against him in order to force further delays in his criminal cases. but this comes as trump's overall rhetoric has grown more violent in recent weeks. two weeks ago he warned of a bloodbath if he loses the presidency again. and november at this weekend, he shared a video that depicted joe biden tied up in the back of a pickup truck. trump has spent years attacking public officials and legal professionals and it's having a real effect across the country. during an interview late last year the deputy attorney general said the doj was seen, quote, an unprecedented rise in threats to public officials in one week alone they saw cases involving threats to kill fbi agents, a supreme court justices and three presidential

candidates. meanwhile a few days ago rolling stone reported the threats leveled against theh colorado secretary of state, griswold, spikes more than 600% in the seven months since a lawsuit was first filed challenging trump's eligibility to be on the ballot. trump's threats and accusations are no doubt self-serving, it's a cynical effort to try his case in the court of public opinion and rally his supporters to his side. but he's also undoubtedly undermining the rule of law which could have lasting effects on the integrity of the justice system for years to come. ruth, good to see you, thanks for being with us. i wanted to speak to friday night when i first saw the imagery that donald trump posted of a pickup truck, people that this on their trucks, but it's a picture that if you're driving behind the ou truck is meant to make you

imagine that joe biden is lining the back of the truck, i don't know if you supposed to be dead or unconscious, hands tied behind his back, and again you talk so much about the fact that these people don't have to commit violent themselves, they just have to put it out there. >> yeah, i was extremely disturbed to see this, and you know, a third of my book is about who's and that image in particular, it's very important that it's life-size, because it's performing a work of propaganda and imagination that people can actually see that no one is off-limits, even a sitting president of the unitedn states and really, it's showing what would happen in the event of a coup because in a coup, the sitting often democratic leader is overthrown and becomes a hostage if he's not killed or put in jail.

so this is highly disturbing but it's not an isolated incident. recently the kansas gop had a fundraiser and donors were invited, this was a reward for donating to assault with sticks, et cetera, and effigy of biden, now the official party distanced itself but it still have lots of participants. so we are living through an unprecedented effort to delegitimize the rule of law, our entire democratic system, all of our institutions up to a sitting president of the united states, and violence is being proposed as a valid form of dealing with differences and we are in the realm of autocracy. >> we both share a real strength of the first amendment and the right of the press, how do you square that with the criticism

of things that seem to be violent incitement, most courts of law draw lines very specific violent incitement but how do you think about this because we want people to be able to express their satisfaction with biden or trump or anybody else, where's the line? >> i think context matters. it also matters where we are as a country. we have january 6th, talk about the legitimation. this was an attack on our entire system of congress as it is understood in a democracy. nd inciting violence toward individuals, there's a logic to it, and you mentioned before, the rash of threats to prosecutors and judges, and lawyers, this is what autocrats do. if you look at turkey today, his regime, there's hundreds of lawyers and prosecutors who have been detained or are sitting in jail. these are the people who are

always punished and sometimes, killed, in the history of autocracy because authoritarianism is a system ry where you arrange government, so that the leader and his cronies cannot be held accountable. that's what we are seeing here. so we have to evaluate the right to free speech in terms of the stakes of that speech. >> two important things, one isa the way a government or administrative structure is formed in an authoritarian environment and the other is this cult of personality which is outside of government. tell me about the distinction because you wrote about trump's personality a few weeks ago in your newsletter, you said trump is a wrong figure is fundamental, to the twisting of the january 6th assault on the capital into a patriotic and morally righteous act.

so, tell me about the connection here because you were talking about the end result but this, it depends on this cult? >> all of trump-ism has been structured around this leader called and trump is a victim, a victim of the deep state and im all of the other entities that we know by now, and so, the purpose, ever since fascism, the purpose of these leader cult is also to change the way people think of violence, and so january 6th, was a leader cult rescue operation where trump was in distress, he was this wrong, you know, victim of a stolen election and he called on his supporters to rescue him, and they did, and violence is the way that you change history, violence is the way you respond to threats and thus we get to biden, a life-size image of biden who has to be

disposed of in this violent manner for justice and moralityr to prevail and that would be you know, trump being the righteous leader, restored to power. >> there's another aspect of re this that doesn't involve trump being restored to power or winning the most votes, tim snyder was talking about this. he doesn't really have to win, he just needs to be in the ballpark because he's primed all of his supporters for a loss, this whole thing is about what happens if he loses, it's one thing if he wins, if you actually get your votes than joe biden does or electoral college votes but actually, it's as much of a problem if he loses by a bit. >> it is, and then we get, this is where the violent speech is important because there is the threat of violence because we have this last time but now several years have passed since

january 6th and more and more people have been radicalized, and if he gets really important to be speaking out, i'm waiting for various authorities to be responding to this, you know, vision of biden, a sitting president of the united states, you know, as a hostage and in other countries it's very clear what the logic and mechanism is here. so the other problem is, trump has pulled off this propaganda victory where, his party and millions of americans are treating him like he is still the president, and he's the kind of precedent and eternal

exile, so there's also that going on, which, we've never had anything like this before. so the concept of losing or winning elections when millions of people still think he is the rightful president, see, this is where we are not in the terrain of democracy anymore. the rules have been broken, the whole game is different and we have to adjust our thinking, and that's why i've been talking about this for years now and from the framework of autocracy. >> that's the important thing to remember because we have to realize we are in a different thing right now, and simply winning an election does not restore us to our normalcy as a democracy, this is why the work that you do is so crucial. author of the very important lucid newsletter of the author of the book strongman, still ahead, some billionaires have previously distance themselves from donald trump are they coming back to the fold because it back for their bottom line. plus a special report about a volunteer network that's helping vulnerable migrant women navigate strict abortion bans in this country and one student is taking matters into his own hands and is addressing the issue of food insecurity

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the most important thing in a campaign is money, good candidates, good vibes, those all help a lot but money is critical. it's been a big week for money and politics, on thursday across the street from the studio, president biden held a fundraiser featuring former president obama obama and clinton that reagan more than $26 million. trump could soon be able to bridge the gap. as the washington post reports, many republican billionaires are looking their bags of cash back to trump's corner. post

reports that blackstone's ceo, steve schwartz, is one of those billionaires who was briefly involved with the trump administration serving as chair of the policy form in 2017 but after the 2022 midterms he said was quote, time for the republican party to turn a new generation of leaders. now he is considering a major donation to the trump campaign, as is oracle cofounder larry ellison. he was one of the biggest backers for tim scott before his campaign folded in november and in 2016, a pack that he helped fund spent millions opposing trump but as senator scott dropped out and endorsed trump it looks like ellison is following as well. then there's jeff yass, we reported the largest

shareholder, yass who holds billions of dollars in the parent company of tiktok may have also influenced trump's shift of opposing a band of it but yass was a never trumper at one point and he was featured in a new york times article in 2016 about how the ultra wealthy word of refusing to donate money to trump, now as bloomberg reports, yass is one of the few names who is reported to be trump's treasury secretary. in august, axios reported the gop mega-donors were flashing a bat signal in the sky willing to give money to anyone willing to beat trump. by december, as politico put it, the donors started waking up, they insisted biden's perspective tax policies are forcing their hand to support trump and while

they hold soft moral objections to trump's or authoritarian tendencies and neglect for the rule of law, they draw hard lines when it comes to their fortunes. in that report, one person close to major donors who were coming around to backing trump said this isn't a passionate embrace, it's just reality. after a quick break i will dig into this with sheila, who has vast experience covering people with this magnitude of wealth. o. s is gentle on sensitive skin and locks in moisture to provide soothing relief. a nose in need deserves puffs indeed. america's #1 lotion tissue.

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>> i think this is a really interesting moment because suddenly, we are seeing the moral quandary faced by our donor class, the political donors who >> all these candidates and they have this choice to make. they have to decide whether they are more concerned about the future of democracy and the future of the united states and defending the values that they have long professed to care about or are they more concerned with their bank accounts, with their tax rate, and the potential to pass on our graduate and sums of wealth to their heirs in the future. sadly, we are seeing that a lot of them are, you know, making the choice that they are more concerned about their personal self-interest, and to be honest, i'm not shocked, i'm a little bit disappointed. and a lot of these people were embarrassed about trump the last time. some of them supported the man,

some didn't, but this time around they can't make the argument that they don't know what they're getting into. we have seen what trump is capable of, january 6th proved that he is willing to ignore the rule of law, and short-term financial interests are taking precedence for a lot of people. >> we are both financial reporters so we get the capital system. i understand everyone in america not wanting to pay one more dollar in taxes than they feel they should and government being responsible about this. i get it. but what do you say to people who are faced with this because all of these billionaires are smart, nobody fell into $1 billion, most people didn't, some people did. but what you say when the argument comes up that yes, you may save few of your dollars but you save democracy in the end? >> it's a really difficult moment because suddenly a lot of these people who have spent their entire lives benefiting from the system that we have built here that allows everyone to have a fair shot at building

a fortune and making a good life for themselves and finally they are finding themselves the beneficiaries of all of that and now, they almost want to put up the walls and protect what they have hoarded for themselves and not necessarily you know, spend any of their resources on the future generations and the concerns of other people. i think it's a moment where we could really redefine the idea of patriotism, you know, republicans have long used this as sort of a term in there campaigning but i think democrats need to retake this idea of what it means to be a patriot, and i think it means the courage to stand up for democracy of the values we have long cherished in this country, even when it goes against your short-term financial interest, so that's the pitch i would make to some of these rich business people who are hemming and hawing about what they should do. >> one of the interesting things is you put a rich billionaire in putin's russia and it's not working out all

that well, so even if you have lots of billions and you want lower taxes, being in a democratic society is generally speaking in the long-term better. >> again, it depends on what kind of world you want to live in. and some of the billionaires i've interviewed in the past few are declining to support trump, you know, they feel really strongly that they do not want their children to grow up in a country where they have to live behind fortified walls and can't go out in public and wealth and equality are so severe that our country is at risk of collapse. there are some people who really don't want their kids to grow up in that world. unfortunately, we've entered this zone where a lot of people you know, our thinking about putting money into the race,

they are succumbing to the idea of false equivalence which has plagued our political discourse it's the 2016 election where you have two candidates and neither of them are perfect, joe biden, he's not ideal, it would be great if he was maybe a little younger or perhaps we wish that he had slightly different policies on the border or israel but those problems and drawbacks are not the same as one faces with trump, who has really proven himself to be a dangerous person who does not think the law applies to him. so once again, we need to get away from this idea of equating to people who are both imperfect, but one is outright dangerous, and the other is imperfect. >> well said, thank you as always. a very special report on how migrant women who were sexually assaulted on their way to the united states navigate this complex system of immigration and abortion laws, once they are here. they believed they were coming to the land of the free, instead, they arrived in post-

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migrant to attempt to come to this country face great risks when they undertake the dangerous trek toward the border. along the southern border, rates of sexual violence against migrants have skyrocketed leading to a surge in unwanted pregnancies. in texas, where many migrants cross in the united states, accessing abortion care is nearly impossible to state law prompting a rise in a secret abortion pill network. in her new report, contributor and emmy award-winning journalist, paula ramos speaks to sexual assault survivors and reveals what's at stake for one of the most vulnerable populations in post-roe america.

>> we are about to talk to a young asylum-seekers who was sexually assaulted in a mexican border town and found out she was pregnant as soon as she stepped into texas. the only reason she agreed to talk to us was because we will not be disclosing her identity or where we are right now. when valentina left el salvador for the united states, many of her friends cautioned her against it. they knew about the harrowing experiences of women heading north. [ speaking in a global language ] at one point after entering texas did you find out you were pregnant? >> [ speaking in a global language ] valentina found herself in texas, pregnant, alone and planning and abortion.

were you aware of the strict abortion laws that are enforced in texas? : were you looking for clinical help? what did you want? >> [ speaking in a global language ] >> the pills she's referring to are a combination of mifepristone and, more than 60% of all abortions performed in the united states are done using these pills but since the supreme court overturned roe v wade in 2022, 14 republican-led states including texas have banned the medication. >> [ speaking in a global language ]

>> valentina found a group that was able to ship the pills to a friends house in a nearby state. at 14 weeks. it, she found herself packing once more, this time, to carry out a self managed abortion. weeks after she returned to texas, valentina managed to obtain more packs of the abortion pills, inspired by her own struggle, she decided to break the law to help women in similar situations. >> were you aware that what you were doing was illegal? >> [ speaking in a global language ] >> do you have any left right now? >> [ speaking in a global language ] >> are you still thinking about

helping other women? >> [ speaking in a global language ] >> valentina said she is no longer providing abortion pills but on the other side of the border, activists are working day and night to fill the void. >> [ speaking in a global language ] >> this is evelyn, a young doctor from mexico city, who is part of an international network helping women obtain mifepristone, since overturn of roe v wade in 2022, much of the help is being routed to texas.

she asked for her identity to be concealed. >> approximately how big is this network? >> >> [ speaking in a global language ] >> where are they contacting you from? >> [ speaking in a global language ] >> how many packs of pills are you sending this week? >> [ speaking in a global language ] >> how do you hide these pills and make sure that no one knows what you are mailing? >> [ speaking in a global language ] >> many people would ask, what's in it for you, see you are not doing it for economic reasons. >> [ speaking in a global

language ] >> back in texas, valentina feels the same way. >> you risk your life, your status, why? >> [ speaking in a global language ] >> because i know what it feels like to be there and have no help. flonas daily for non-drowsy long lasting relief in a scent free, gentle mist. flonase all good. also, try our allergy headache and nighttime pills. ♪♪

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msnbc is emmy award-winning journalist, paola ramos. the author of the book finding latinx. paola i have to tell you, i ran into you the other day and i said why don't you come on my show and here you are. i am grateful to you. what remarkable reporting you're doing. the piece of context that you covered but i want to remind my viewers, is, this is an abnormal level of, there should be no normal level of sexual assault but there's been an increase in the number of people sexually assaulted as they try and get to the united states, why? >> that's right, just to give you more context, according to doctors without borders, in the last three months of 2023, they saw sexual violence against migrants increased by 70%,

specifically in the border towns which are directly in front of roswell, texas and mcallen. i think there are several factors. on the one hand you have this unprecedented surge of migrants, he also have u.s. policies that push migrants to subject themselves to wait on the mexican side of the border, sometimes, for months or even a year and then you have the cartels, these mexican cartels that have pretty much understood they can make a lot of money just by holding migrants hostage, they can make thousands and thousands of dollars so sexual violence and rape has become another tool to extort them, to torture them and it's very simple. if you go through these border towns, you have to pay a price. if you do not have the money, they unfortunately, will assault you. >> they pay with their bodies. we have a segment after this called small acts of courage.

this valentina story, after she gets to texas and now she's willing to risk everything to help other women, that's a big act, i think it's important to understand why it's important for her to undertake this dangerous task in a place where abortion is not a safe thing to do because of texas law. >> i mean, that was the question i have for valentina like why are you doing this, why are you risking yourself to do this. and we learned so much from the answer, you understand from her story that this ethical imperative, the moral rage, to do what is morally correct, many times it outweighs the fear and legal consequences and i think that's what republicans don't think about, the unintended consequences of these antiabortion laws. it draws people like valentina to take matters into her own hands, it drives a migrant, to risk her own immigration

status, to rake with texas antiabortion laws in other to help other migrant women like herself and i keep going back to this idea, right, that's exactly what republicans can't measure in these laws, these small acts of courage that people are driven to take. >> paola, let's talk about how we have fallen as a country in which there is an entire class of women, who have experienced sexual violence who are impregnated against their will, and we are leaving this to people, individuals, to try and work out, to skirt the law and try and solve themselves. these clandestine networks, what happens? do they grow, what do we do about this? >> it grows, look, it's easy to become a statistic in texas, there are 26,000 rape related pregnancies , illegality in the

50s and 60s and early 70s didn't stop women in groups from doing what they had to do and circumvent the laws. these laws are designed specifically to crush people like valentina, designed to create chaos, uncertainty, fear, to oppress her and look what she did. i think what we are seeing is sort of you know the new version of that story and what that looks like in the 21st century and the idea is the same one, there will always be groups and people like valentina on both sides of the border feeling that way. >> amazing reporting, thank you, it's a devastating story but an important one to tell. we are grateful to you and i hope you will come and visit us again. sometimes all it takes as we were talking, is one small act of courage to make a big change and coming up we will talk to a texas college student who's changing the lives of fellow undergrads by addressing an issue that infects --

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college can be the best of times and the worst of times. teenagers who are barely adults have to navigate new found freedoms while juggling social activities and for many financial instability. many kids know what it's like not knowing where their next meal is coming from. as a freshman at the university

of texas,, lived on campus where he enjoyed the meal plan but when he moved off campus into an area adjacent to campus where roughly 25,000 students live and commute to class, he noticed he would get home from a long day and hadn't eaten a single meal. but he found the issue that's some of his friends and he were facing went beyond that, while the neighborhood has multiple convenience stores, the closest actual grocery store is a 20 minute walk for students who find that off campus meal plan to be unaffordable which is the reality for many of them, that poses a huge barrier to food access and the convenience stores don't offer fresh or nutritious food. what they are facing is student food insecurity which is one regular access to a

nutritionally adequate diet is limited, or unaffordable. and this is an issue across college campuses in the u.s. but especially at ut austin, in 2021 the student organization called the food security agency conducted a campuswide study that found one in three students at the school faced food insecurity. a previous study from the organization also found 96% of food insecure students had not experienced food insecurity until arriving on campus. now a junior in the public health program, duong runs the food security agency along with erica howard, a student in the master public affairs department and last week, they launched a shuttle program which transports students from campus to a nearby grocery store and then back to their doorstep. they're hoping to transport up to 80 students every weekend to get access to fresh, nutritious food, helping students get access to food is one step in

the effort to eradicate food insecurity on campus, affordability is another issue many face. but nonetheless, their hyper local small act of courage is already making a big difference on campus. duong is studying public health and the codirector of the agency, thanks very much and congratulations for undertaking this. i want to ask you, how did you realize, food insecurity is not a word that rolls off of our tongue, how did you realize that what you were experiencing as a student, not eating as much as she would've liked to, was not just the nature of being a student, it was a more serious issue. >> yeah, i think, thanks for having me, by the way, i think the first thing that comes to mind when it comes to that was living on campus, students are immersed within the ut campus. there's meal plans, there are the dining halls, those are all accessible to the students, and it was great, you could have food whenever you wanted, when

it comes to the topic of food insecurity, it wasn't really something that was in my mind, for students, they were not really feeling it, when they come into colleges when that topic was arising, it wasn't until i moved off of campus and moved into west campus was when i started to notice there was a big access issue. that's why, you know, a lot of my friends, we chat, you know, there's a stigma behind it so we joke like oh, it's 9:00 p.m., and i maybe had a granola bar or those kind of topics, so that's when you know, you start to see the problem but yeah, that is kind of my experience with that, and i was able to have a car and i took my fence to the grocery store when they needed but it's definitely been an issue for not only my fence but the majority of students. >> you've launch this subtle idea and obviously access, this is a universal problem, we have

issues were even if people have the money to buy all the food they wanted, where you can get it from and your neighborhood is not often there. how much of solving this is access to a grocery store, hopefully through your shuttle versus actual affordability, having enough money to buy the amount of calories that you need to make it through a week? >> in regards to that, the big thing with that, is with ut there's a vast array of students from a lot of different background, specifically income, and yeah, that's why there's organizations currently on campus like ut outpost who gives 25 pounds of free food to students every month and so, that's one sector of it and the other sector of it is where you simply cannot get to one, so those two are overarching, so that's why there is a nuance

between the two. >> and you're solving for one of the two problems. i mean, we talk about austin, austin is a hot town, people are moving in there, it's got tech, it's got all the good things. how much of this is the gentrification of these places? it just becomes unaffordable for students. you want to go to a good school but you end up, and this is college towns all over america, there are not places to live? >> it's interesting, i think, i'm from dallas, so i come to austin and there was a shift and i love austin, but i think as the city grows and specifically what i noticed on campus, we see this growth of these new, modern buildings and all of these types of things and you see it being built in the most convenient locations, you are seeing it built where it's convenient for the students were able to afford it. but what happened there is marginalization of students further back and pushing the access problem even more. so that's really where i've seen it firsthand and even from

a skill -- a scale, this is what happens here, i couldn't imagine what happens in the broader austin area. >> thanks very much and congratulations on what you are doing, dat duong is the codirector of the food security agency and as you know i feel strongly that small acts of courage are an answer to a world where things seem overwhelming. i've been discussing some of the ideas in my book but in the meantime, i'll post information on the book on all my social media platforms. don't forget velshi is

available as a podcast, you can listen to the show for free wherever you get your podcast, and that does it for me, thank you for spending these hours on your weekend with me, you can catch me back here next saturday and sunday morning from 10:00 until noon:00 -- noon as donald trump's criminal trial errors towards him. he posted an image on social media depicting joe biden tied up and gagged in the back of a truck. my rs